Australia’s NBN Co announced today that 5,035,072 premises are now able to connect to the National Broadband Network service, with an average of about 250,000 homes and business having been connected each month over the past year.

The aim is to hook up 8 million premises by 2020, covering over 60% of the country.

Despite this significant milestone, the latest report from NBN Co pointed out that only about half the number of available premises are actually paying customers.

In its weekly update, NBN Co announced that there are currently 2,245,550 NBN customers – making for a current average of about 130,000 sign-ups per month.

A lack of NBN knowledge

The low subscriber numbers could be an indication of the Australian public’s general lack of knowledge around switching to the NBN.

What Australians may not understand is that if the NBN is available in an area, the switch from traditional broadband services is mandatory.

Once a property has been set up with an NBN connection, the older phone and internet connections will both be switched off and customers will be required to make the necessary arrangements with a telco of their choice to keep an active internet and phone services going.

If you’d like more information on the NBN service or need to find out if your home or business can access it, head to http://www.nbnco.com.au and enter your address.